Microsoft boosts Surface production ahead of wider retail rollout

Microsoft has upped production of its Surface with Windows RT tablet and will start selling it through third party retailers this week in a bid to translate holiday season demand into increased sales momentum in the New Year.

The company's first own-brand tablet has been available for more than a month now, but its cause thus far hasn't been done any favours by a lack of visibility on store shelves over the biggest consumer spending period of the year.

As it stands the only way of buying a Surface is online via Microsoft itself (or in the company's physical stores in the US and Canada), though the company has spent big on marketing and advertising to boost awareness of both the device itself and the latest version of Windows.

So is the move to widen this distribution bottleneck a response to increased levels of demand, or Microsoft simply righting a wrong that shouldn't have been there in the first place?

Not surprisingly, the company itself claims it's the former.

“The public reaction to Surface has been exciting to see,” says Surface general manager Panos Panay.

“We've increased production and are expanding the ways in which customers can interact with, experience and purchase Surface.”

The US and Australia will be the first to benefit from the wider availability this week, with other markets – including the UK – to follow suit over the coming months.

By then Microsoft should also have launched the Surface for Windows 8 Pro, a bigger and pricier version of the tablet running full-fat Windows 8 Pro, rather than the more mobile-friendly Windows RT present on the current model.

This will be released to the UK & other worldwide retailers with at least 1/4 price cut in January (normal price cut after a 3 month life cycle). They will do this to boost market-share and also the fact that the pricier Pro version will also be releasing.